January 31, 2018

There is something important about feeling like you belong. There is just something about knowing and believing that the people around you care and love you. Jesus was so big on this. It’s why he said things like, let the first one among you who has no sin be the first to throw a stone. It’s why he went and ate with sinners in their homes. It’s why he brought uneducated fishermen into his fold and made them the kind of men who would change the world. There is something important about knowing you belong.

We tend to want to push people out. We push them out because they’re different. We push them out because we’re afraid of them. We push them out because they’re inconvenient. Yet, Jesus was the welcoming type. He met with religious leaders, and prostitutes. He spent time with the rich, and he sat down with the poor. He accepted people and made sure they knew just how important they were.

Do people around you know that they are important? Do they feel like someone that God loves? Do they feel like someone he cares for? Do they feel that love and care through you? Do we as a church, and do you as an individual, make the people you meet and see feel like they are loved by God? Or are they just another passer by?